The property’s proximity to hiking trails and water makes it more likely that it has been developed or even purchased.

For about a century, parts of Spring Canyon – about 40 acres of private land – remained hidden and surrounded by the Gila Wilderness.

Now it is on its way to becoming part of the wilderness area. The Wilderness Land Trust has purchased the property and plans to donate it to the U.S. Forest Service. After the donation, Spring Canyon will become part of the Gila Wilderness.

Spring Canyon represents a so-called enclosure, which groups such as the Wilderness Land Trust believe could lead to development within wilderness areas.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of private land lie isolated as estates, and Spring Canyon is one of the few tracts of land in the country’s oldest wilderness.

“These islands of private land – inholdings – have no protection of the surrounding lands and so can be built on with anything from cabins to resorts. They can be used for commercial tourism or mining. Forest roads can be built and that can really impact the surrounding wilderness with connectivity of habitat, watersheds, wildlife, migration corridors and all sorts of other aspects,” Margosia Jadkowski of the Wilderness Land Trust told the NM Political Report.

She said Spring Canyon is a great example of her agency’s work to protect these areas.

“Our goal is to complete these wilderness areas by removing the threats posed by development in them,” she said.

She said there are only a few watersheds left in the Gila Wilderness and Spring Canyon is one of the larger ones. Spring Canyon is also home to some important ecological habitats.

“There’s a water source there that’s really important in this dry and arid climate,” she said. “And that water source also feeds the East Fork of the Gila River, which is important.”

She said that although the property is surrounded by wilderness, its proximity to hiking trails and water made it more likely that it would have been developed if it had not been acquired by the Wilderness Land Trust.

Although roads are not allowed in wilderness areas, there are laws that allow private landowners to apply for access roads, but Jadkowski said that is not the most likely development scenario.

Helicopters can often land in coves, and Jadkowski said this could allow for the construction of cabins or resorts that are only accessible by helicopter. She said the Wilderness Land Trust has also seen helicopters used for dredging work in coves.

The 40-acre property in Spring Canyon was historically used as pastureland and is undeveloped.

Jadkowski said at some point a property owner planted apple trees along the spring. She said the trees are now fully grown and fenced off.

“I always find that fascinating,” she said. “Which of the owners (planted the trees) or how long ago was it and why? What dream was it that perhaps never came to fruition, or was it just a whim?”

The lack of structures on the site makes the Wilderness Land Trust’s job easier, as it does not have to remove any buildings before the site can be transferred to public ownership.

Jadkowski said the Forest Service will dictate what must be done with the fence before ownership is transferred.

“The goal is to restore the property to its pre-transfer wilderness character,” she said.

Some of the properties the organization acquired required it to demolish entire houses or remove mining equipment.

Jadkowski cited as an example a property purchased in the Frank Churchill–River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, where mining had once taken place. The Wilderness Land Trust removed an old vehicle and mining equipment by boat on the Salmon River.

In most cases, the Wilderness Land Trust sells the acquired parcels to the federal government.

Jadkowski said they generally don’t make any money selling the land, but usually break even. Sometimes, she said, the organization loses money on the sale to transfer the land to public ownership. That’s because the assessment the Wilderness Land Trust does follows a different process than the assessment the federal government uses.

The Wilderness Land Trust often pays between $2,000 and $10,000 per acre, depending on the property’s appraised value, but it does not disclose how much it pays for an individual parcel.

The federal government has set aside money through the Land and Water Conservation Fund to acquire land such as inholdings, but the process of transferring the land into public ownership can take two to seven years. Jadkowski said landowners often don’t want to wait years when they decide to sell their property.

“We can work on either time frame,” she said. “We can work quickly with the private landowner if they are ready and willing to sell. We only work with willing landowners and willing sellers. We can work on their timeline and will then actually hold the land for as long as it takes the agency to acquire it.”

Jadkowski said the organization is working closely with the Forest Service and other agencies to ensure the federal government is genuinely interested in acquiring the property.

Although the Wilderness Land Trust sends letters to landowners offering to purchase their land, Jadkowski said the federal agency often approaches the organization after learning that the landowner is considering selling.

The Spring Canyon property represents the 27th acquisition the Wilderness Land Trust has made in New Mexico, and the effort has protected more than 5,000 acres in the state.

Over the course of more than three decades, the organization has transferred 587 properties totaling more than 57,900 acres into public ownership across the country.

“As America’s first wilderness area, the Gila Wilderness is both an incredible landscape and an important part of our public lands history,” said Brian Stultz, a district ranger with the Wilderness Ranger District of the Gila National Forest, in a press release. “We are proud to be stewards of it and look forward to working with the Wilderness Land Trust to add the Spring Canyon property to the forest for future generations to enjoy.”

NM Political Report is a nonprofit public news portal that provides in-depth, expert reporting on the people and politics of New Mexico.

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